Sheffield is internationally renowned as a leader in the steel industry and cutlery, hence it’s nickname ‘The Steel City’. The first official reference to cutlery in Sheffield is in a tax return of Robert the Cutler, which was filed in 1297.

By 1624, the date of the original Act establishing the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire, there was a thriving industry producing cutlery, edge tools and agricultural implements.

The stainless steel we use in everyday household items was discovered by Harry Brearley in 1912, at the Brown Firth Laboratories in Sheffield.

We are therefore proud to be able to host the 43rd meeting of the BSPED at the Cutlers Hall in Sheffield, a renowned building that has hosted the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire since 1832.

This is the third Cutlers Hall in Sheffield, the first being built in 1638. It is a Grade 2* Listed building originally costing the Company £8,846 and is considered to be one of the finest Livery halls in the country. When the Foundation stone was laid in 1832, the Master Cutler stated that: "...this Hall is intended not only for the Cutlers’ Company, but for the general purpose of the Town” – little did he know that it would host hundreds of paediatric subspecialists!

There have been some notable advances in Medicine in Sheffield. Sheffield’s notoriety in musculoskeletal medicine dates back to the 1920s when Edward Mellanby's studies on rickets established that cod liver oil prevented the disease, which helped lead to its eradication. In the 1930s, Cecil Payne became the first to use Penicillin to effect a cure and Sir Hans Krebs made significant advancements in the study of cellular energy, codifying his observations in the Krebs Cycle, for which work he received a Nobel Prize in 1953.

The forthcoming BSPED 2015 meeting will therefore honour some of the great discoveries of Medicine in Sheffield by hosting symposia on paediatric musculoskeletal medicine and translational medicine in paediatric endocrinology at the main meeting on 26th November.

The CME day on 25th November will provided a varied focus on key clinical and training matters in paediatrics endocrinology and diabetes. The diabetes programme on Friday 27th November will start with a focus on type 2 diabetes and obesity and progress with a focus on type 1 diabetes, with symposia highlighting the advances made from the Genetics of Obesity Study, advice and management in adolescent diabetes and a review of the advances in diabetes over the previous decades.

During the meeting cutting edge themes in paediatric diabetes and endocrinology will be presented in the oral presentations and posters. The Nurse Professionals meeting run in parallel with the main meeting will focus on current patient and management issues is paediatric endocrinology. All delegates are welcome to attend this section of the meeting.